"My general," he began, "on 10 October, Lieutenant Hideyori's radio operators began hearing a coded message transmitted on the twenty-meter shortwave band. Hideyori brought this to my attention. The message was partly in the clear and partly encrypted. It was addressed to U.S. Forces in Aus-tralia.
"At my direction, the message was forwarded to the Signals Intelligence Branch in Manila, together with several suggestions of mine to aid in the de-cryption process.
"The same day, late in the afternoon, a radio station which we believe to be the U.S. Navy station on Mare Island, California, responded to the station here. That message was also encrypted. There has been a further exchange of messages since then, but let me take this one thing at a time.
"This morning, Signals Intelligence Branch furnished me with their de-cryption of the first messages. They informed me the encryption was per-formed on a U.S. Army Model 94 cryptographic machine, two examples of which came into our hands on Luzon.
"The first message, the one Hideyori's operators intercepted, was quite simple. Quote: We have the hot poop from the hot yanks in the phils Fertig brig gen. End quote."
"So there is a General Fertig?" General Kurokawa interrupted.
"We don't know that for sure, General," Saikaku said. "I'll touch on that in a moment. The body of the message is in American vernacular. 'Hot poop' is a slang expression meaning, roughly, 'fresh information."Hot yanks in the phils' obviously means 'Yankees in the Philippines.' "
" 'Hot Yankees'?" General Kurokawa asked.
"I don't know what that means, General. Possibly it refers to the heat. The reply from California told the station here to stand by-be attentive-at six the following morning. At that time, the California station asked MFS-the call sign of the station here-to furnish them the maiden name-the name of an unmarried woman's father-of Fertig's next of kin-presumably his wife- and her date of birth. This was furnished."
"Obviously, then, there is a Fertig," General Kurokawa said.
"Yes, Sir. A Fertig. Not necessarily a General Fertig. I have been looking into this. Nowhere in captured personnel records is there a record of a General Fertig. There is a record of a Major Fertig, believed killed during the Luzon campaign."
"The Americans could have infiltrated this man somehow," General Kurokawa said. "Or it could be-what is the French phrase? A nom de guerre.
"With all respect, Sir, based on the following messages, I have developed a theory. In my judgment, Sir, there was some doubt in the United States about this man's identity. They asked the maiden name and date of birth questions to make him prove who he is."
"And?" General Kurokawa asked impatiently.
"Immediately after the station here furnished the asked-for information, there was a message to Mrs. Fertig. Quote: Pineapples for breakfast. Love. End quote."
"Which you think means what?"
"The Dole Corporation, as I am sure the General knows, had extensive operations on this island. Pineapples and Mindanao have a meaning. I think it is entirely possible that this Fertig fellow has a connection with the Dole Cor-poration; he very well might be an executive. He was both further identifying himself and telling his wife where he is."
"Presumably, you have inquired into this? I was under the impression that we have detained a number of Americans who worked for the Dole Plantation. Was there a Dole employee named Fertig?"
"I have inquired, Sir, and the inquiries are continuing. We have fairly complete personnel records; the name Fertig does not appear on any of them.
Which brings us to the General's very perceptive theory about a nom de guerre. Fertig is a German word meaning finished, or the end, something like that. What we very well may have here is a Dole executive, either from here or one of the other Dole operations in the Philippines, who has assumed the name Fertig. And has undertaken to harass us by announcing that he is a general."
The General, Saikaku thought, is not above reacting to flattery. He liked that "very perceptive theory" comment.
"That seems a possibility," General Kurokawa said, "but I would not rec-ommend that we dismiss the possibility that the Americans have either left be-hind someone-someone military-to cause us trouble, or sent someone in."
"No such conclusion has been drawn, General," Saikaku said.
"What about the radio station? Where is it?"
"Somewhere in the mountains, Sir," Saikaku replied. "I have learned from Lieutenant Hideyori that location of a radio transmitter is not quite as simple as the Signals people would have us believe."
"Explain that, please," General Kurokawa ordered.
"I defer to Lieutenant Hideyori's expertise, Sir," Saikaku said, and waved his hand at the Signals Lieutenant.
Hideyori jumped to his feet, came to attention, and bowed to General Kurokawa.
"Sir, the enemy transmitter is in the mountains. The triangulation location technique requires two-preferably three-truck mounted directional radio antennae. When a signal is detected, the operators rotate the antennae, using a signal-strength meter. That indicates the direction of the transmitting antenna. A line is drawn on a map from the truck antenna in the direction of the trans-mitting antenna. Each truck does this. Where the lines converge on the map, one expects to find the transmitter."
"Yes?"
"In the mountains, Sir, it is very difficult to adjust the directional anten-nae. And the imprecision of the adjustment is magnified by distance. There are very few roads in the mountains which will take our trucks. The distance is great."
"In other words, Lieutenant, you have not been able to locate the trans-mitter by triangulation?"
"Yes, Sir. Sir, another problem is that the transmitter is operating only infrequently, not, as in the beginning, every hour on the hour."
"Find this radio station, Lieutenant," General Kurokawa ordered, shut-ting him off.
Hideyori came to attention again, bowed again, and sat down.
"Has there been other communication between this radio station and the United States?"
"They are not in communication with the Americans in Australia, Sir,"
Saikaku said. "Yes, Sir. They have sent out the names of several of their offi-cers."
"If they have 'several officers,' wouldn't that suggest to you that this is not just one pineapple-company employee harassing us?" General Kurokawa asked sarcastically.
"Sir, we have checked the names against captured records. As you are aware, we do not have personnel rosters before the surrender; the Americans burned those. We have only rosters of personnel who entered captivity. Some of those subsequently escaped. None of the names of the escaped prisoners match those sent by this radio station. It is entirely possible that this man Fertig is transmitting names he has made up, for purposes of deception. And there have been no incidents of anything that might be construed as an attack against our forces. I do not believe," he concluded, "that there is an irregular force, just this man annoying us."
"I devoutly hope you are right, Captain Saikaku," General Kurokawa said. "Thank you all for coming to see me."
[TWO]
Naval Air Transport Command Passenger Terminal